


A Body Together

by pyrrhical (anoyo)



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Post-Star Trek (2009), Spock POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-11
Updated: 2010-03-11
Packaged: 2018-10-09 22:32:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10423242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anoyo/pseuds/pyrrhical
Summary: Very few changes had been made to theEnterprise'screw between the Nero devastation and her official send-out into active duty.  The rag-tag crew had been kept together for many reasons, Spock knows, and while only some of them are defensible on paper, they all make sense.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written 3/11/10. Elite of the Fleet challenge fic. Never posted anywhere else.

Very few changes had been made to the _Enterprise's_ crew between the Nero devastation and her official send-out into active duty. The rag-tag crew had been kept together for many reasons, Spock knows, and while only some of them are defensible on paper, they all make sense.

It's helped them to become a close-knit crew more quickly than any crew with as young an average age as they’ve got has any right to be, but that's not something that Spock has it in him to regret, or to hold any hard feelings about.

In fact, on more than one occasion, it's something he's been glad of, or even privately celebrated. When a minor failure was met by the crew's solidarity, rather than scorn, or a victory was met by an almost _seen_ thrumming of accomplishment and congratulations. The trials and tribulations of the _Enterprise_ , combined with the events surrounding her ascent into active duty, had led her to possess a crew that Spock believes any ship should envy.

This fact has, however, its predictable -- though no less devastating for their predictability -- negative side effects.

In Starfleet active duty, it is expected that lives will be lost. While it is every Captain's job to maintain the highest level of crew safety possible -- and Captain Kirk has proved to be more than just adequate at this -- both accidents and dangerous missions will take the lives of both the young and the experienced. 

With a crew as young and inexperienced as the _Enterprise's_ , inexperience does more damage in the field than either Spock or Captain Kirk could ever have predicted. No matter how many times Spock finds himself impressed with the Captain's ability to think on his feet, finding creative ways to save the lives of his crew and the integrity of their mission, the lulls between orders from Starfleet Command have taken a set tone.

A tone which, no matter how hard he analyzes, studies, or attempts to intervene, Spock cannot find a way around. Though he does not directly see the trials, Spock knows that this is an error margin that baffles, and humbles, the Captain as much as it does himself.

It did not take the crew long to realize that their death toll was higher than most ships -- though not by as much as it ought to have been, which Spock had only realized when he had calculated the averages of experience levels and death rates between comparable ships and crews, and that, he believes, can only be a testament to the _Enterprise_ itself. That realization, however, only managed to bring the usual dull roar of commotion between the departments of the _Enterprise_ slowly, over time, to an underlying thrum.

After every mission, Spock sees the crew take account of who has passed and who has not, and continue, somberly and pointedly, about their tasks. They maintain the solidarity that Spock has seen them uphold beyond their years, the strength, the cheer -- but with a sort of mourner's set to their shoulders.

Between missions, while repairs are being made, Spock makes it his business to go from department to department -- and he watches, silently, as the Captain does the same -- to watch and interact with the solid strength that the _Enterprise_ is creating and maintaining, through loss and through bonds that cannot be understood without, first, understanding that very loss. A tragic thought, but also a very centering thought.

And so he lets it center him, until the next mission comes in, and the _Enterprise_ once again becomes the bustle of life and activity that is the envy of the Fleet. That switch, between mission and lull, will perhaps be one that can slowly change again, when experience brings the casualty count closer to the ideal empty set. Until then, it will be one more tragedy to pull together a stronger, firmer crew. And Spock will stand with them; a body together.


End file.
